" The peculiar situation of the anthropological fieldworker, participating simultaneously in two distinct worlds of meaning and action, requires that he relate to his research subjects as an "outsider," trying to "learn" and penetrate their way of life, while relating to his own culture as a kind of metaphorical "native."

To both groups he is a professional stranger, a person who holds himself aloof from their lives in order to gain perspective. "

― Roy Wagner , The Invention of Culture